Veteran bathtub racer Melvin Mitchell will be sitting out of this year’s Loyal Nanaimo Bathtub Society World Championship Bathtub Race, with his daughter Jenna entered in the race instead.
With this year’s race scheduled for July 27, Melvin will be riding along in the escort boat, watching his daughter leave Nanaimo, head out around Protection Island, around Entrance Island to the Winchelsea Islands, and back to Nanaimo, for a total of more than 60 kilometres in her tiny bathtub craft.
Melvin said Jenna has long been involved in racing, learning when she was younger about how a bathtub racer is built and serviced, and how to race one. He said he and Jenna have been getting the boat ready for its toughest challenge of the season.
“Everything ran well,” said Melvin. “We were in the water last night (July 20) and everything’s looking good.”
Melvin said he will be heading from Powell River to Nanaimo on July 25 and hopes to take part in the parade through Nanaimo, called the Sail Past on Wheels, along Commercial Street.
“They block the street off and let the parade go through, stopping traffic,” said Melvin. “It’s right downtown.”
Melvin said he is hoping for good water conditions, but ultimately, there’s nothing the racers can do about it, so there’s “no use in worrying about it.”
“It’s deceiving,” said Melvin. “From our point of view, from here to Texada Island, you don’t see the natural swell, but out in the Salish Sea, the water is bigger. It might look calm, but there’s always those swells out there.
“The bathtub is a little boat and you sure can feel it. There’s airtime happening out there during the race. You’re pretty sore after the race. Sometimes, even a couple of weeks later, I still get remnants.”
Melvin said he’s been racing in 14-foot waves in past years, which are huge in a bathtub.
When Melvin travels along with Jenna in the escort boat, he said he has a man stepping forward from Nanaimo with a 26-foot boat to provide the escort.
“It’s a pretty big boat to try and remain focused on the race, but we will do the job,” said Melvin.
He said that the Spirit and Intent Protection Island Bathtub Racing Team “adopted him” as part of their team and they do whatever they can to help Melvin out, so if he can’t line up an escort, he gets the Protection Island group to find one.
“I believe they are in the Guiness Book of World Records as the world’s largest bathtub racing team,” said Melvin. “We had 36 tubs in one race and 18 of them came from Protection Island.”
Melvin said that each year, there is a salute to some organization at the race, such as the Canadian Navy, or the Coast Guard, and last year, it was a salute for former mayor Frank Ney’s air force squadron. This year, the salute is to the tubbers themselves, which pleases Melvin.
The Nanaimo bathtub race will be 59 years old this year, and his family has been racing for 38 of them.
“We love the sport, and the people that we meet, and they treat us well,” said Melvin. “We’ve gone down and had a meal, got ready to pay, and found out that our meal has been paid. I had money in my pocket and was ready to pay, but the bill was covered. It’s amazing.”
Melvin said his family got involved in bathtub racing when his younger brother made a boat and entered the race. However, after his brother had entered the race, which he didn’t complete because of a faulty engine, he was driving along the Island Highway and lost his life in a motor vehicle accident.
Melvin said he was determined to finish the race for his brother, so that’s how he and his family got into bathtub racing back in 1988.
“It means a lot to us,” said Melvin. “We said that we should try and finish the race for him and bring back that little trophy so we could add to the other ones in his collection, because he was a real athlete.”
Melvin said it is expensive to go racing, but he is really lucky to have excellent sponsors, who have been with him a long time.
“They know our story and they continue to help us get to Nanaimo to represent our town,” added Melvin.
Melvin will host a bathtub race off Gibsons Beach, north of Powell River, in August.
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